William Orie Potts (April 3, 1928, Arlington, Virginia – February 16, 2005, Plantation, Florida) was an American jazz pianist and arranger.
[6] In 1957, Potts worked extensively as a composer, arranger, and performer for Freddy Merkle's Jazz Under the Dome album (which also featured Earl and Rob Swope).
[4] During this time, he began working on charts and arrangements for an album consisting of jazz reinterpretations of many songs from George Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess.
[2] Following this, Potts spent several years working in New York City before returning to the D.C. area, where he worked locally in addition to touring with and/or arranging for Paul Anka, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Stan Kenton, Ralph Marterie, Buddy Rich, Jeri Southern, Clark Terry, and Bobby Vinton.
This group included some of the players from the Porgy and Bess session (Markowitz, Sims), as well as Tito Puente, Chino Pozo, Mel Lewis, Barry Galbraith, and Louie Ramirez.